Eidolon - RUPI Joint Investigation - Overland Corner Hotel - SA - (2014)

The Overland Corner Hotel

Barmera - The RIverland

South Australia

Eidolon Paranormal were invited by the team of Riverland Unexplained Paranormal Investigators to investigate the historic Overland Corner Hotel, situated some 21kms from Barmera on the road to Renmark.

 This was a great opportunity to catch with another of South Australia's honest and down to earth paranormal investigation teams, have some fun, investigate, and document another of South Australia's historic locations.

The History Of 

The Overland Hotel

 

Overland Corner Hotel - circa 1889: Photo Courtesy of The State Library of South Australia

One of the more interesting historical origin stories of a pub in South Australia belongs to the Overland Corner Hotel, which was built in 1859 by the Brand Brothers.

The hotel gained its first license on the 13th of March 1860, made out to William Brand, but it was actually John Chambers who applied to have the structure erected on Crown Land to serve the local community, which already had a police station (built in 1855) that was to curb the antics of the local population and indigenous peoples which tended to not get along.

In 1862, George Brand took over the licensing of the hotel. The Brand Brothers, George, William, Harry & Jim had pretty much built the pub themselves, and stayed on living in the area, and working at the  puib, which would eventually end up in the hands of William and his wife Hannah.

It was around this time that the Hotel become a stopping point for the mail coach from Wentworth, N.S.W., which would then go on to Blanchetown, then to be loaded on to trains at Freeling destined for Adelaide.

The building was constructed with Limestone from local quarries and consists of 14 rooms and an inner courtyard.

In 1965 it was purchased by the National Trust for historical preservation as it was thought to be one of the very first stone buildings in South Australia.The roof was originally a thatched roof but was eventually replaced with a tin roof.

 Another building also stood beside the current Hotel, a house that used as the residence of the publican, but it has long been removed, and no trace remains today, except for small hints of its existence in State Library photos

B45951 The Brand Brothers Harry, William,

George & Jim builders of the Overland Corner Hotel 1860 

 Captain Moonlite

Andrew George Scott (baptised 5 July 1842 – 20 January 1880), also known as Captain Moonlite, was an Australian bushranger.

The son of an Irish Anglican Clergyman, that moved to New Zealand in 1861, Scott was wounded in battle in the “Maori Wars” at the battle of Oraku where both his legs were wounded. After a long period of recovery, Scott was court-martial from the service for his objection to the slaughter of women and children during the siege.

He moved to Australia, in 1866 to become a lay-reader at Bacchus Marsh, with the intention of joining the Anglican Clergy in Australia, however these plans were not to come to fruition

On 8 May 1869, Andrew Scott was accused by the local constabulary, of disguising himself and forcing bank agent Ludwig Julius Wilhelm Bruun to open the bank safe. Bruun described being robbed by a black-crepe masked figure who forced him to sign a note absolving him of any role in the crime. The note read "I hereby certify that L.W. Bruun has done everything within his power to withstand this intrusion and the taking of money which was done with firearms, Captain Moonlite, Sworn.

Bruun claimed the man sounded like Scott but no gold was found in Scott's possession. Andrew George Scott acted dumbfounded and categorically refuted the claims, explaining that he had just arrived from Melbourne, and produced a train ticket to prove his innocence. The Reverend Scott even went as far as visiting Bruun's father, demanding that he advise his son to apologise. He was so convincing that the police believed he was innocent and therefore diverted their attention to Bruun, who was duly arrested. They also took into custody the School Master, James Simpson, who was accused of being an accomplice and author of the "Moonlite" letter.

For a more indepth look at the life of Captain Moonlite - please follow this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Moonlite

 Captain Moonlite was said to have entered the Overland Corner Hotel on his horse, and was known at times to frequent the pub on occasion 

Investigation

Eidolon Paranormal was invited by R.U.P.I to investigate alongside them at the Historic Overland Corner Hotel in South Australia's Riverland - We would like to thank Kathy & Richard, Louise and Wendy for allowing us to come along, and a very special thanks to our amazing host, and licensee of the Overland Hotel, Phil. Your hospitality, kindness and sharing of history with us, and allowing us to enter your amazing property is most appreciated, and we thank you and team R.U.P.I. for allowing us the privilege to, not only investigate such an amazing place, but share and experience it with you all - what a fantastic night! :)

For more photo's please visit: Allen Tiller's "fan" page

Our investigation started with a chat to current licensee, Phil Reddy, who has a passion for history and the Hotel. Mr Reddy has amassed a vast knowledge on the location and shared much of it with us.

 This is the first location, where almost immediately upon entering the site, Allen witnessed something he cannot explain, and only a little while later, Allen and Karen, whilst interviewing Philip on Camera, both witnessed movement inside the hotel, whilst everyone was accountable, and within eyesight outside.

Kathy of RUPI began sensing Mr Patrick Devlin outside near the old horse cart, and using her skills, connected to the Gentlemen who put upon her a vision of his torturous death, and the vision of 5 men on horses, could this have been the notorious gang that rode with Captain Moonlight, and could they have had a hand in the death of Mr Devlin?

Our night progressed with an EVP session from Karen and Wendy, and also two apparition sightings by Allen. One appeared as a man wearing a brown tweed jacket, brown pant and black books, with a large black beard, who walked through a wall from what is now the mens toilets, into what was then a gambling wall - could this have been one of the Brand Brothers? As it was so quick, and nothing was caught on camera, Allen dismissed it as a personal experience.

The second of allens personal experiences happened outside the kitchen area, as Allen was walking through the hall from the bar, he noticed a young, possibly indigenous girl who was covered in bright orange. As it turns out, Bright Orange is the colour of ochre found only meters away in a local Aboriginal sacred area, and was a known colour for young indigenous girls to wear in the area!  - Again nothing was caught on camera, but interestingly, it wasn't until after Allen had seen the apparition and was talking to Phil that he learned of the colour orange being the natural ochre colour of the local indigenous tribes.

So is the place haunted? It is our belief that in this particular location there are events unexplainable that would fall into the category of "Paranormal phenomena", but at this stage they need more exploration.

 

Allen Tiller, Philip Reddy and Karen Tiller

Richard, Kathy, Phil, Wendy and Louise - Team RUPI with Phil Reddy at Overland Corner Hotel

 

© 2007 - 2014 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.net

All content on “Eidolon Paranormal & The Haunts of Adelaide” sites, blog and corresponding media pages (eg Facebook, twitter etc) is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means or process without the written permission of the author. © 2012, 2013, 2014

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Some photo's used here on this site are sourced from The Sate Library of South Australia, and The National Library of Australia and http://www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.

Paranormal Investigation - The Kapunda Mines - Kapunda

The Kapunda Mines Investigation(s)

We are very lucky to be living in a town with a reputation for being one of the most haunted places in Australia, possibly the world.

  One of the locations associated with haunting is The Old Kapunda Mines (you can read more about the history of the mines lower on this page).

 Many ghosts and cryptid stories are associated with the mines, some are far-fetched, but others have a basis in truth, of course, we try and dispel the more insane of local legends, but one can't dismiss so easily ghost stories that are based in factual events.

One story is of a small child who is seen to haunt one of the current open cut mines, which back in the day of which this young man died, would have been a very deep mine shaft. The stories about this boy can be corroborated with stories reported in local newspapers.

Another story is to do with children drowning in what was once the pump house, also a verified story, where the child is now seen near the old pump house station.

 Other reports include people being slapped in the face, the sound of picks hitting stones, distant singing, people being touched and a report by another team of seeing a "Bunyip" type creature that allowed itself to be touched by them.

 With all these stories, you can imagine the prospects of investigating the location, but, being an open cut mine, with many perils and pitfalls, this is an awkward and somewhat dangerous location to investigate.

On our numerous daylight and evening trips to the mines, we have not encountered anything as of yet we would say represent haunting or paranormal phenomena, instead, what we have found so far is natural explanations for phenomena occurring there.

 Johnson Feed Mill is running day and night and very noisy close by and also the Kapunda Quarry, both of these locations add to the sounds heard when one is down in the open cut mines, and can be associated with the sounds of explosions, picks and shovels and other noises being heard, including voices and singing.

We feel that most touching phenomena reported is usually put down to hyper-sensitivity that people feel when entering a location they feel is haunted, therefore raising their "fight or flight" senses.

As for other phenomena, experience's of said phenomena are hard to find and therefore difficult to assess, we are not saying that they are lying about their experiences in the mines, but until they can be interviewed, and their stories assessed one has to lay the story aside unless the same phenomena occur in one's own presence.

This, however, has not stopped us investigating by ourselves, with Adelaide Shadow Hunters or with teams and guests after SA Paranormal Meet-ups (one can enter the mines day or night, two "wheels" are open at all times, the major one is generally off-limits without prior consent, which is easily obtainable)

The Kapunda Mines History

The Copper in the Kapunda Mines was first discovered by Francis Dutton in 1842. He began a partnership with Captain Bagot (Captain was a traditional Cornish term used for a manager)and together they purchased about 80 acres of land. They paid 1 pound per acre of land.

The pair set about taking samples from the numerous green rocks. The samples were then sent off to England for testing, this would take almost two years before results would return to Australia. Upon the results reaching Australia, the business partners were astonished to find the copper was 22.5 per cent pure, which at the time was the richest deposit found anywhere in the world.

The mine began small with Bagot employing labourers to dig the copper of the surface with shovels and picks. In their first year alone they removed 600 tons of ore, valued at about 7000 pounds.

Around December 1844, Cornish miners began to arrive on-site, and tunnelling and underground mining began in earnest.

Francis Dutton decided to sell his 25% share in the mine in 1846, earning him the vast sum (at the time) of 16000 pounds, Captain Bagot now had the controlling 55% of the ownership of the mine.

In its beginnings, the mine would transport its ore via bullock dray to Port Adelaide, a journey of about 6 days, where it would be loaded onto ships and transported by vessels to Swansea in Wales, where it was smelted by the Welsh. Loads were sent at 2 tonnes per load, by 1850, the mine was producing 100 tones of copper ore per month.

In the coming years the mine would expand significantly, and so would the town. Many jobs were created, and it seemed in this era that certain cultural backgrounds provided expertise in differing areas, with Welsh men coming to South Australia to operate smelters, the Cornish, who were expert miners, and the Germans who began to cut down trees needed to power the furnaces of the smelters and began farms to feed the vast amount of workers. Then there were the Irish who began as labourers and to drive the Bullock teams to Port Adelaide

Kapunda never had one distinct mine instead there were at least five or six

distinct copper lodes in close proximity, which were mined from as many as ten

separate shafts over time: Wheal Bagot, Wheal Charlotte, Wheal Truscott,

Wheal Lanyon, Wheal Harris, Wheal Major. There is no trace of any of them

today, as they have all been obliterated by later workings of the mine (wheal being a Cornish mining term of phrase)

In 1849, Smelters made in Germany arrived in South Australia, reducing the need to ship ore overseas, however, the ships now brought back Coal from England for the smelters

by 1851, Kapunda had a population of over 2000 people

In 1850, the mines had reached about 80 feet down and had started to go below the water table, a steam engine was brought in to pump the water out of the mine. At its deepest point, the mine reached about 480 feet or 150 metres.

In 1852, the Goldrush in Victoria began, this had a huge effect on Kapunda and its surrounds, many men left to try their luck at finding a quick fortune. For almost three years the production rate at Kapunda dropped to a minimal amount, however by 1857, production was at full speed again producing upwards of 4104 tonnes of ore

The Kapunda mines importance declined with the discovery of copper at Burra, with a lode four times greater than Kapunda, but even Burra couldn’t compete with Moonta, which had a lode almost 4 times greater than Burra's!

By 1863 the majority of the high-grade ore had been mined out, the mine was now a low-grade ore mine – soon it became an opencut mine.

The mine closed in 1878 and all the equipment was sold

However, it did reopen again and continued until 1912 on a smaller scale. During this time 12,800 tonnes or copper ore were mined

Now, in 2012 the Copper mine stands as a tourist attraction at Kapunda Southern End dominated by the large stone chimney that was used to provide air for the engine boilers below. The mine is the favourite place of artists who love the deep green hues of the water that fills the open-cut mine.

The mine has an appeal for Paranormal investigators in the area due to stories of a paranormal nature that have appeared on the internet and through the rumour of townsfolk, these include the sightings of a “hairy ape-like man” thought to be the “Kapunda Yeti”, to sightings of strange “lamp” lights near the mine, disembodied voices, people being “slapped” across the face and full-bodied apparitions of miners, wearing clothes from a different era, in the surrounding area.

Our research has uncovered a few deaths involving miners, a few grizzly events. Such as miners losing limbs, a boy almost drowning in a wastewater tank, could these events have scared the interior of the mines with emotions that resonate today, or is it people reaching a state of hypersensitivity due to the scary desolate feeling of the mine interior, and thus scaring themselves into believing a ghost is present?

Whatever is happening within the mine, it still remains a place of historical significance and should be treated as such, this is also a terribly dangerous place to enter, with open mine shafts, large pieces of steel jutting out of rock formations and other unseen dangers, we do not recommend going into the mine at all to anyone as its pitfalls are numerous.

Time Line:

1842 Copper ore discovered

1844 Mine opened

1845 Horse whim installed

Mine Square Cottages built

1846 Dutton sold his share

Captain John Richards appointed

1848 Draft engine purchased

1849 Draft engine at work

Smelter built

1851 Buhl engine installed

Mine closed by Victorian gold rush

1855 Mine re-opened

1859 Captain Bagot retired

1860 Kapunda Mining Company formed in London

Subsidence in workings

Railway reached Kapunda

1861 Draft Engine re-located

1862 East Kapunda mines opened

1863 Mines operated at a loss

1865 Scottish company took over mines

1867 Henderson Plant in production

Captain Osborne appointed

Opencut extraction

1877 Crash in copper price

1879 Mines closed

1880 Hillside mine opened

1912 Tributers finished up

1938 Matthews Gravel Quarry on Block 19 opened

1949 Matthews Gravel Quarry on Block 19 closed

1962 Council acquired Block 24

1972 Council acquired Block 21

Plaque placed on smokestack

Charlotte opencut used as Council dump

1986 Jubilee 150 signage erected

1987 Site entered in SA Heritage Register

2008 Preparation of Conservation Management Plan for the site

Researched and Written

By

Allen Tiller

©2012 Eidolon Paranormal.